It has been my experience, in a data communications class that I teach to upper-level electrical and computer engineering technology students, that the lecture-based style of teaching has been ineffective in encouraging student engagement when class is in session. My initial attempt to remedy this situation was to create cooperative learning assignments for students to complete in groups throughout the semester. These assignments were received favorably by the majority of students, with the primary objection being that the assignments were too extensive to complete within the time available. This was due in part to the fact that a significant portion of class time still had to be reserved for lectures. A flipped classroom can be defined as one in which the activities that typically occur inside and outside the classroom are inverted. This means that lecture-based content will be recorded on video for each student to review the videos at home, while activities performed inside the classroom focus on using active-learning strategies. In this way, more effective student-centered learning strategies can be used in class, while not preventing the professor from meeting his or her requirement to cover extensive course content.
My implementation of the flipped classroom consists of the following out-of-class or online elements: video lectures, presentations, time-sensitive chapter quizzes, and question-and-answer discussion boards. The in-class elements will consist of: brief lecture-style overviews of chapter objectives, class discussions based on questions or points obtained from the discussion boards or online quiz responses, cooperative work on assigned questions from a specific chapter(s), and teacher-led worked examples.
The effectiveness of the flipped classroom strategies is evaluated using responses to an end-of-term survey to measure student attitude. Student learning was assessed by comparing the grades earned by students under the flipped classroom format with the grades earned by students taught with a lecture-style format.
The results indicate that the flipped classroom format was preferred to the traditional format by the majority of students in this course, but there was not strong enough evidence to support the claim that student learning was enhanced by this format.